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CNN with Aid Convoy Outside Damascus; Apple Slams Court Order to Unlock Shooter's iPhone; Clinton and Sanders Neck-and-Neck in Nevada; Clues on How the Zika Virus Spreads; Catherine Launches "Young Minds Matter" Series; Pope to Visit Prison at U.S.-Mexico Border; Band Returns to Paris after Terror Attacks. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired February 17, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Ahead at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, desperately needed aid makes its way into Syrian cities.
Apple fights a court order on the San Bernardino attacks.
And President Obama says Donald Trump will not win the White House.
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CURNOW: Hello, everyone, welcome. I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center.
We start with a critical test in the push to get relief to people in Syria. Syrian state TV says an aid convoy has entered a Damascus suburb and that's
just one of several convoys trying to reach starving Syrians in other besieged areas.
But it all hinges on whether the warring sides will let shipments through. In an exclusive interview with our Fred Pleitgen, U.N. special envoy
Staffan de Mistura they said this is a defining moment for the agreement to pause the fighting reached last week in Munich.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sir, the delivery of aid to besieged areas is very, very important.
What do you think will happen?
What do you hope will happen?
And how important is this?
STAFFAN DE MISTURA, U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY TO SYRIA: Let's start with the last point. It is not important. It's essential, crucial for two reason
reasons. First, because they are now more than 400,000 people living in besieged areas, 400,000 Syrians besieged both by the government, most of
it, but also by ISIL; Deir ez-Zor, 200,000 of them and by the opposition.
Secondly because the people have been literally starving and when they are not starving, they are very close to it. Even in Deir ez-Zor they are
starting suffering.
And three, because this is a test. It is a test on what was decided in Munich. In Munich, it was clearly a commitment by everyone to ensure that
this would be happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, our Fred Pleitgen is now with an aid convoy outside Damascus. He joins us on the line.
Hi, there, Fred. I don't know if you can hear us.
What are you seeing?
PLEITGEN: Hi, Robyn, yes, I certainly can hear you. And I'm actually with this aid convoy, which is very large. I would say it's about 30, 40, maybe
even 50 vehicles, both from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and from the United Nations.
And the aid convoy that I'm in right now is one that's moving towards the town called Madaya. It is, of course, the town that we have done a lot of
reporting about, one that has seen starvation on a very large scale, where activists there have said that many people have already died of starvation.
So one that is very badly in need of medical supplies and of food as well. Now the convoy that I'm in is moving along very well at this point in time.
We have already passed one checkpoint. I would say at this point in time, Robyn, that we're about maybe 18 kilometers, so about 12 miles outside of
Madaya.
And the folks I'm with say that we're going to be there probably in about half an hour, maybe 25 minutes. And that's when one of the real tests
comes here for this convoy, whether or not the authorities there at that checkpoint are going to allow that aid into Madaya.
Once it's inside, that's when the U.N. can start distributing and of course that is going to be so important there for the people.
But as you said, there have been other convoys today that have already gone into other areas, one into Hamouriyah (ph), which is a suburb of Damascus,
but also for a very long time hasn't gotten aid, either.
So at this point in time, it seems like that one part of that Munich agreement, which is getting aid to people in besieged areas, at least for
now, appears to be working -- Robyn.
CURNOW: OK. So you say you're half away from perhaps the outskirts of Madaya. And as you also say, it is a huge test whether there are going to
be checkpoints, bureaucratic snaffles in many ways.
What is on these convoys and why is it just so important that these people, 400,000, as Staffan de Mistura says, get what is on these convoys that
you're with now?
PLEITGEN: Well, it's still important because many of these people are quite frankly starving. I mean, it's one of the things that Staffan de
Mistura also told me. He said many of these people are in very bad condition. The United Nations has accused the Syrian government, rebel
groups but of also first and foremost ISIS of using starvation and the denial of medical supplies as a weapon in this war.
And it's one of the things that world powers have said needs to stop and which they decided in Munich.
Now on this convoy, which has a lot of very large Syrian Arab Red Crescent and U.N. trucks, there's a lot of food; a lot of that is high energy food,
things like chickpeas, beans, things like that.
The rations are packed into packages that the folks here say would last a family of five for about a month. And there's a lot of trucks out there.
So clearly, they're trying to get in as much aid as they can. And on top of that, they are also bringing medical supplies as well because of course
that's something that is very bad in need, especially for those people who have been --
[10:05:00]
PLEITGEN: -- so weakened by these sieges that have been going on -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Indeed. We have seen these images, particularly from Madaya, but also from outside, other areas, of emaciated residents, of people having to
boil grass to feed themselves. So clearly this aid desperately needed. We know there was also another convoy sometime in January.
What about the security concerns?
Have any lessons been learned?
Is there anything different?
Tell us about that.
PLEITGEN: Well, we -- the United Nations says it's brokered a deal with the government and also with rebel factions as well to make sure that
security is in place, not only -- is in place, not only that these convoys are allowed through but of course also that there isn't any fighting when
the convoys enter into these areas. And that's certainly something that of course will be tested now as well.
The U.N. seems pretty confident that none of this is going to be derailed because of security concerns. It is something that at times has happened
in the past. But if you look at an organization like the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, they have been delivering aid to some of the hardest hit areas of
this conflict for a very long time.
They are good at doing this. They know what they are doing and they certainly are confident enough, they say, that this could work.
CURNOW: Fred Pleitgen there in Syria, traveling with an aid convoy, thank you, Fred.
Well, officials from the U.S. and Taiwan say China deployed surface-to-air missiles to the disputed South China Sea. It's far from China's first
aggressive move in the region. China has carried out a massive land reclamation project there, turning sandbars into islands, airfields and
ports.
Now the added possibility of missiles is agitating China's neighbors, many of whom say and lay claim to the sea. Well, it comes less than a day after
U.S. President Barack Obama renewed calls for a halt in militarization of the territory. Ivan Watson has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The hotly contested debate over who controls the South China Sea just got hotter with Pentagon
and Taiwanese defense officials saying that China appears to have deployed new weapons systems to an island in the sea, which has competing claims of
ownership, not just from China but also from Vietnam and Taiwan.
New satellite imagery from a company called ISI shows what appears to be the deployment of surface-to-air missile batteries along one of the beaches
here. Now China has controlled this island for more than 50 years.
The question is, does this count as militarization?
Beijing insists that this is purely a measure of self-defense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HONG LEI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Our deployment of defense facilities in our own territory is appropriate and
reasonable. It's aimed at improving our national defense capabilities and has nothing to do with so-called militarization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: Part of why this is so contentious is that at least six governments have competing simultaneous claims to different parts of this
body of water through which 30 percent of the world's cargo is believed to travel.
China claims territory all the way down to here, to practically the coast of the Philippines, including this area, an archipelago known as the
Spratly Islands. And when you take a close look at what activities China has had here, that is an explainer for why there's so much alarm.
This is the Fiery Cross Reef (ph), photographed in 2005. Look at how it's been transformed by a very impressive Chinese land reclamation project.
They've put in a deep water port as well as an airstrip creating an entire artificial, manmade island.
Now the Philippines is claiming this territory as its own economic exclusion zone. It's taking China to court. But China is so far refusing
the jurisdiction of that court at The Hague.
In the meantime, you've got Washington stepping in with so-called freedom of navigation operations. So the U.S. has been sending warplanes and U.S.
Navy ships to challenge China's claims to these very waters, which is ratcheting up tensions, since Beijing is calling these operations
destabilizing to peace and security in this region -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Now according to a statement in a government-run paper, China says the missiles have been on the islands for years and that it insists is has
the legal rights to keep them there.
Moving on, tech giant Apple is vowing to fight a U.S. court order to help unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple says it has
to do so -- sorry. Apple says to do so, it would need to build a new software that would jeopardize the security of any iPhone.
Well, our CNNMoney technology correspondent, Laurie Segall, joins me now from New York.
Hi, there, Laurie.
[10:10:00]
CURNOW: This back-door request, it's a bit like leaving the key under the mat, isn't it?
LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's such a great analogy because people have trouble understanding exactly how it would
work. But back-door assets, let's say Apple were to build this kind of software. What Apple has come out and said is if we build this kind of
access and this kind of software, which I'll get into, the good guys will use it. Law enforcement will use it. But hackers all around the world
will use it as well.
So this is kind of the dilemma we always face when it comes to these kinds of cases.
A little bit, Robyn, about that software. Essentially what happens when you guess a password more than 10 times is your iPhone completely erases
the data. It's a protection. So what they want to do is build software that would enable the FBI to say guess as many passwords as possible. And
there's actually technology that enables them to do that at a very quick speed. Hackers are already using this.
So you can see Tim Cook, who has always been -- he's been in Silicon Valley as one of the most outspoken officials when it comes to encryption and
government oversight. He's already coming forward pretty strongly with a statement -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Indeed. Apple is very strong on user privacy.
What else are they saying -- and also this is not the first time this kind of request has been made, is it?
SEGALL: No, and this is a high profile one. I think they want to make a point. They want to put this out in public and have this debate in public.
I want to read you a little bit of what Tim Cook put in a statement.
He said, "The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers,
including tens of millions of American citizens, from sophisticated hackers and cyber criminals."
So it's really going back to what you mentioned about this back door. If you build this software, he's saying we can't promise that it's not going
to be used for oversight or for hackers or cyber criminals. And that's why you just can't put a key under the mat to the front door because anybody
can get in.
And he speaks strongly on this. And I will say, Robyn, about a month ago there was an off-the-record meeting between Silicon Valley officials and
Washington because they're trying to work together a little bit better as you see technology and terrorism intersect in this really compelling way --
Robyn.
CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much, Laurie Segall there in New York.
And of course CNNMoney is launching a new global initiative, bringing you the latest in business, wherever you are in the world. Be sure to check
out our website at cnnmoney.com.
Just a few days left until the next votes in the U.S. presidential race. The latest polls are out and we'll show you how the front-runners are
faring.
Plus the pope heads to a Mexican city once known as the murder capital of the world. We'll take you there.
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CURNOW: The next time U.S. voters will --
[10:15:00]
CURNOW: -- have their say in the presidential race is on Saturday. There's a Republican primary in South Carolina and Democratic caucuses in
Nevada. The latest CNN/ORC poll shows Hillary Clinton running neck-and- neck with Bernie Sanders in Nevada.
And in South Carolina the Republican poll shows Donald Trump firmly ahead of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Jeb Bush is in fourth place.
And U.S. President Barack Obama leveled pointed criticism at Trump at a news conference on Tuesday. It didn't take long for Trump to hit back at
the president. Here's Athena Jones with the prickly back-and-forth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Weighing in just days before the South Carolina primary, President Obama, confident Donald Trump won't
win the White House.
OBAMA: I have a lot of faith in the American people. And I think they recognize that being president is a serious job. It's not hosting a talk
show or a reality show.
JONES (voice-over): Obama blasting the billionaire Tuesday evening, saying Trump panders and lacks even basic foreign policy knowledge.
OBAMA: It requires being able to work with leaders around the world in a way that reflects the importance of the office and gives people confidence
that you know the facts and you know their names and you know where they are on a map and you know something about their history and you're not just
going to play to the crowd back home.
JONES (voice-over): Not one to keep quiet.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has done such a lousy job as president.
JONES (voice-over): -- the GOP front-runner shot back an hour later.
TRUMP: You look at our budgets. You look at our spending. We can't beat ISIS. ObamaCare is terrible. You're lucky I didn't run last time, when
Romney ran, because you would have been a one-term president.
JONES (voice-over): But Obama didn't contain his criticism to Trump's polarizing rhetoric. His rivals were hit, too.
OBAMA: You look at what the other Republican candidates have said. That's pretty troubling, too.
JONES (voice-over): The president specifically calling out Marco Rubio for his previous support of an immigration bill back in 2013.
OBAMA: You've got a candidate who sponsored a bill that I supported, to finally solve the immigration problem. And he's running away from it as
fast as he can.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Athena Jones reporting there.
Well, the Republican presidential contenders are set for one last televised chance to make their cases before Saturday's crucial South Carolina
primary. You can see them all right here on CNN starting later tonight.
But for more on all of this, let's bring in CNN politics senior correspondent Chris Moody.
Hi, there, Chris. These debates, these town halls, these conversations, whatever you want to call them, are not just political theater. It seems
like they do manage to shift the dial somewhat. I mean one of the polls now is showing how Trump lost 9 points after the last debate. The before
and after is quite significant.
CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: That's right. These high- profile forums and debates offer an excellent opportunity for candidates to really get a leg up. It provides them a chance to really speak to the
American people on a major platform.
And this is especially going to be true tonight on CNN because it's not a traditional debate. Instead it's going to be a two-night event, where
candidates will have an opportunity, one-on-one, just themselves on the stage, to be able to make their case uninterrupted, other than questions
from CNN and from people at the town hall.
This is an opportunity for them to provide, right before the South Carolina primaries, their platform, what they stand for. And it's going to give
them an opportunity to either push themselves forward or fall back.
And I want to say something about South Carolina. It's a very important place because it's the first chance for the South to have their say. It's
more conservative than New Hampshire was. And it's different from the people of Iowa in the Midwest. And it's going to show just who is doing
pretty strong in the upcoming Southern primaries, which will happen after this one going forward.
CURNOW: Indeed. It's all about evangelicals as well, particularly for the Republicans.
Let's look ahead, though, to Nevada, because all of these races have -- give us a real snapshot of the voting population in the U.S. It's
fascinating.
And what does Nevada tell us?
What does this Democratic poll suggest, the one where Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are neck-and-neck?
MOODY: Well, Nevada is going to be a caucus. And traditionally there's a very low voter turn out for the caucuses in Nevada in the past.
And so however, this is an opportunity for Bernie Sanders to really show that his strength is real against Hillary Clinton. We kind of knew that he
was going to do pretty well in New Hampshire and actually he surpassed expectations and he did very well.
Well, if he can surpass Hillary Clinton in Nevada, it's going to really show that we have a race here going forward and not -- and show that New
Hampshire was not just a fluke.
[10:20:00]
CURNOW: OK. So let's turn to Copenhagen. It sounds very random -- one of my favorite cities in the world. You have just been there.
But you went there for a reason because Bernie Sanders in particular keeps on talking about the Danish model. And as focus has shifted and people try
and understand his policies, it's important to look at what the Danish model is and how it might or might not work in the U.S. There's some big
differences here.
MOODY: "Might or might not" is the key phrase here. Bernie Sanders has labeled himself as a quote-unquote Democratic socialist. And a lot of
Americans have asked, what does that mean? And he says, well, look at Denmark. Look at what they have done or look at the Scandinavian states.
So we went to Denmark to find out what they think. And in many ways, it does resemble Bernie Sanders' model: free health care, free education,
lots of government services, very high taxes. But Denmark is also a very free market economy: low regulation, no minimum wage. So there's a lot of
differences.
And whether the Danish model could work in the United States is up for a lot of debate, especially given the size of the population versus our size
here, two very different countries.
CURNOW: Indeed. I think there are merely 6 million people in Denmark and 300 million in the U.S. That is significant.
Thanks so much. You wrote a great piece on cnn.com about that. Chris Moody, appreciate it.
And as Chris said, you can watch CNN's town hall tonight and tomorrow night. That's 1:00 am in London, 2:00 am in Central Europe, only on CNN.
U.S. authorities are urging an abundance of caution for people exposed to the Zika virus. The Food and Drug Administration is asking all travelers
returning from Zika hot zones to postpone donating blood for at least four weeks. Federal officials say the virus has not yet entered the U.S. donor
blood supply but it has happened in other countries.
Well, earlier this month, U.S. health officials confirmed that the way the disease is spread isn't limited to mosquitoes. In isolated cases, it seems
the virus can spread sexually, too. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke to a researcher, who discovered something similar almost a decade ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Just looking at the images, it isn't hard to understand why Professor Brian Foy (ph) became so
sick.
The year was 2008. Brian was in Senegal, studying an insect most of us would rather avoid: mosquitoes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've heard that mosquitoes killed more than any other animal on the planet by far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
GUPTA (voice-over): With this sort of work, it wasn't unusual to feel a little miserable when you got home. But this time was different.
DR. BRIAN FOY, MICROBIOLOGIST: It really hit me. I think I was driving in a car and I just couldn't keep my eyes open.
GUPTA (voice-over): Tests came back negative for just about everything. The only thing Brian was fairly certain about: this virus was from
mosquitoes and it hit him hard.
His whole body hurt. Ankle pain, hip pain, wrists and thumbs, a rash here on the chest and back, mild fever.
Brian's wife, Joy, who hadn't been to Africa, in fact, hadn't even left Northern Colorado in more than a year, also got sick.
FOY: She got worse than I did by far. She -- her arthralgia was stronger and it lasted a lot longer. She couldn't really open cans and things like
that for quite a long time.
GUPTA: So at this point you knew she had what you had had.
FOY: I felt very confident, yes.
GUPTA (voice-over): Brian and Joy were convinced the virus had been transmitted by sex.
FOY: We had just -- saw each other, you know, do what husbands and wives do.
GUPTA (voice-over): But what many don't know is that the testicles are an area of the body known as immune privileged. That's an area where the
immune system won't easily attack probably because it would affect a man's ability to have children in the future. But it also means viruses can hide
more safely here and be sexually transmitted.
Brian decided to freeze his and Joy's blood in the hopes they would one day find the answer.
And by the time Zika hitchhiked its way around the world to the Americas, they knew the virus had already made its way to the United States nearly a
decade earlier, even if no one else had listened to them.
FOY: They wanted to see more evidence. Now, unfortunately, we have more evidence.
GUPTA (voice-over): And consider this: if we had paid attention back in 2008, maybe today we would have a therapy or even a vaccine for Zika virus.
GUPTA: All right. So this is it, huh?
FOY: This is the insectory.
GUPTA (voice-over): Today, Brian is giving some of the mosquitoes he studies the treat they need more than any other: human blood. It helps
him better understand how they transmit the virus.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which typically only lives 30 days, takes 14 days before it can spread the virus. So a solution may not be to eradicate
the deadliest animal on the planet but just to shorten its lifespan -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Fort Collins, Colorado.
[10:25:00]
CURNOW: Fascinating stuff there from Sanjay.
Well, moving on, the "Huffington Post" U.K. is getting royal treatment. The Duchess of Cambridge is working as a guest editor for the online news
service for a day to raise awareness about an issue close to her heart. Our London correspondent Max Foster joins me now.
Hi, there. So a mini-newsroom has been set up at Kensington Palace.
MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Yes. The "Huffington Post" couldn't quite believe it when she thought this was a good idea and actually invited them in. But
it really suited her strategy, which is to try to get people not to focus just on what she's wearing or what she's doing with her family but to focus
on those causes that she's so keen to promote.
And she's found that working with children and young adults, so many of the issues are based in childhood; mental issues haven't been recognized early
on. She wants to raise awareness about them, saying that parents often refuse to recognize mental illness in their children because they don't
want that stigma attached to their families.
And she's trying to break that down, saying that she, her two children ever had any sort of mental illness, she would hope that she would talk to them
about them, she would hope that they would able to talk to her about them.
But at the "Huffington Post," they'd pitched an idea which was really appealing to her at the time. And this is what their editor had to say
before she started commissioning pieces today from the likes of Michelle Obama, no less.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN HUFF, "HUFFINGTON POST": You can see straight away she's passionate about this. She knows exactly what she wants them to write.
But again, she's not the cliche of an (INAUDIBLE). She does it with a smile and she can persuade them in the right way. And it's been a really
nice experience for us all. And not just us in the "Huffington Post," but I think the duchess is probably seeing a different side of the media.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: #YoungMindsMatter is the hashtag trending, Robyn, pretty quickly. So it had the desired effect.
CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much. Great talking to you, Max Foster, thank you.
If you're drinking a cup of hot chocolate, you might want to hear this before taking another sip. A new report from a British campaign group says
flavored drinks sold at major coffee chains in the U.K. have more than three times the maximum daily intake of sugar recommended for adults.
It's studied beverages at nine big coffee shops, including Starbucks and Costa Coffee. The report says 98 percent of hot flavored drinks have
excessive levels of sugar. The worst offender, a hot meld fruit drink from Starbucks, it contains 25 teaspoons of sugar.
Well, still ahead, a billboard greets Pope Francis at the U.S.-Mexican border. We'll bring you a live report from the next stop on the pope's
visit.
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[10:30:00]
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CURNOW: Hi, there. Welcome back to INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow, here's a check of the headlines.
(HEADLINES)
CURNOW: The normally cool Pope Francis lost his temper and his balance in the middle of a crowd. One onlooker pulled the pontiff so hard he fell
onto someone in a wheelchair. It happened while music was blaring at a stadium Tuesday. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CURNOW (voice-over): Well, as you can see aides and security stepped in to prevent Francis from falling. But the 79-year old scolded the person in
the crowd for being, quote, "selfish."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: The pope is on his way to another region in Mexico. The highly political U.S.-Mexico border. Let's bring in Polo Sandoval from Ciudad
Juarez, where the mass will be held in the next few hours.
Hi, there, Polo. This is a day of deep symbolism for the pope and the people of Mexico.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. In fact, we watched this morning as that smile, that familiar smile was back on Pope Francis' face
as he left Mexico City, expected to touch down here in Juarez in the next hour and a half or so.
He will celebrate mass in what used to be old, dusty fairground. It was converted when the last month or so into now this massive outdoor
sanctuary; at least 200,000 people will fill the area behind me.
Right now they are praying the rosary as they anxiously await the pontiff. His first stop once he arrives here in Juarez will be the El Cereso state
prison, at one point one of the most dangerous. He will be living up to that expectation of being the people's pope and that includes people with a
troubled past.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL (voice-over): El Cereso state prison in Juarez has long been considered Mexico's most dangerous and the men confined behind the walls
and barbed wire a microcosm of the violence that once dominated the city outside.
At the height of cartel violence in Juarez in 2010, the inmates literally ran the prison. Six years later, it prepares to welcome a pope.
The man who runs El Cereso today walked us through part the prison that would have been too dangerous to enter a few years ago. That's when the
prison yard served as a bloody battleground for rival street gangs.
(through translator): The inmates governed the prison. Let's be honest. Inmates held the keys to their cells and were armed.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Jorge Biseka Lasta (ph) tells us a state of lawlessness and disorder once prevailed in El Cereso; over-population bred
violence and repeated riots. Inmates decided who lived and who died.
(through translator): We discovered kidnapping and extortion groups operating out of the prison.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Since then Chihuahua State officials have regained control and, like in Juarez, a delicate truce between rival gangs is in
place.
Many inmates have been busy preparing the prison for the papal visit. Among them, Joel Reyes (ph), who is currently serving a 30-year sentence
for murder.
Reyes tells me the pope's visit reinforces his faith in the Catholic Church, his fellow man and, most importantly, he says, his chance for
rehabilitation.
Pope Francis will meet with correctional officials in this small prison chapel previously used by inmates to store weapons then pray with 700
prisoners in the courtyard, among them cartel enforcers who kidnapped and killed.
(INAUDIBLE) hopes Francis' visit can help to reinforce the peace among the gangs not only in the prison but in the city that surrounds it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And not long after Pope Francis is driven back out of those prison gates, he will have a couple of meetings here in Juarez before he --
[10:35:00]
SANDOVAL: -- eventually heads here to the heart of the city to celebrate mass.
And finally, Robyn, I do want to leave you with this image, where you can see over my shoulder just past the crowds that are slowly building, you see
a white structure. That is actually an elementary school in El Paso, Texas. So that gives you a bit more perspective on how close Pope Francis
will be to the United States when he actually breaks away from the ceremony, heads to a temporary migrant shelter that's been set up on the
banks of the Rio Grande, which serves as a boundary between the U.S. and Mexico.
He prays for migrants, obviously a very politically potent event. Whatever the pontiff does, whatever the pontiff says during that moment will clearly
be heard around the world -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Yes, indeed, and throughout this trip, the pontiff has been very specific, very symbolic about where he travels to, a message in all of
these locations.
Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.
It's only been about six weeks since the recapture of brutal drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. He's back behind bars at the same prison where
he staged a brazen escape last year and now he wants the world to know it's not a charmed life. Rafael Romo joins me.
Well, that's no surprise. But he's been complaining, hasn't he?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: He says that he has been the victim of physical and mental torture. That from a man who escaped
spectacularly twice from maximum security prisons in Mexico and who staged another escape just last year. But this time he says that the conditions
are just not what he would have expected.
And this is not coming directly from El Chapo himself. This is coming from his attorney, who spoke to a Mexican radio station yesterday, listen to
what he said and Chapo telling his attorney.
He said, "He told me, literally, every two hours at night, they wake me up to take roll. They are turning me into a zombie. They do not let me
sleep. All I want is just for them to let me sleep."
Now this is nothing new. Mexican authorities, Robyn, had already said that there were going to be constant checks on El Chapo's welfare and making
sure that he was still in his cell at unannounced times, every two hours, every six hours, every 10 hours, at random at all times of the day.
CURNOW: Well, they don't want to be embarrassed again. And I mean, El Chapo complaining about being turned into a zombie, I mean, clearly these
drug cartels have wreaked havoc on more people within Mexico than having your sleep disturbed.
But that in mind, though, that's just one aspect of a number of security checks that have been implemented in the prison.
ROMO: Yes, it's a very good point because originally, when he was caught, there were 400 security cameras installed at the prison. That number is
going to increase by an additional 600 by April. So he's going to have absolutely no privacy.
The other element of security that has been implemented there is the addition of tracking dogs that can detect El Chapo's scent. And this is
one of his complaints as well.
He told his attorney that there's a dog constantly standing guard outside his cell and that that creates an element of fear from El Chapo.
And one comment that he made that caught my attention, he said, "It is brutal torture. This is what was done by Stalin in the '40s and '50s in
Russia."
CURNOW: Wow. He clearly is using his previous prison experiences, where I think he bribed a number of the officers. It's very different this time
around.
Let's talk about what happens next for him.
Any news on the extradition?
ROMO: His attorney was asked that specifically. He says that he had so little time to talk to El Chapo and he didn't discuss anything about
extradition. But Mexican authorities stand by what they said last month.
The whole process is going to take anywhere from a year to five years. So, from the government's perspective, he's not going to be extradited anytime
soon -- Robyn.
CURNOW: OK. Rafael Romo, thank you so much.
OK. You're with the IDESK. Ahead: it was much more than a rock concert. Eagles of Death Metal returned to Paris to finish a show interrupted by
terror. The highlights of their emotionally charged performance, coming up.
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[10:40:00]
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CURNOW: Welcome back.
In a sold-out concert hall in Paris, a U.S. rock band returned to the stage to finish a concert it started three months back. Eagles of Death Metal,
the rock group that was playing at the Bataclan when terrorists stormed the concert venue back in November, performed for a packed crowd. There were
some 2,800 fans, including 900 survivors and relatives of those killed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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JESSE HUGHES, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL: Eighty-nine seconds of silence please. Let's take a moment to remember. Then we get back to the fun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Tough security that night. One survivor says the concert was a form of therapy for her, a step to return to normal life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started to cry. We weren't the only ones to cry. We (INAUDIBLE) around the (INAUDIBLE) with my boyfriend. We held each
other very tight (INAUDIBLE) and we hugged (INAUDIBLE) and we hugged with other people, too. (INAUDIBLE). It was a beautiful thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, the band members went on to say they've been inspired by the way French people have come together in the wake of the attacks.
And finally, something a little bit lighter. There's a new top dog at the Westminster Dog Show, Best in Show went to a German shorthaired pointer
named CJ.
That's short for California Journey. CJ is 3 years old and he's only the third of his breed to take home the top prize. He was completing with
nearly 3,000 other dogs. The show is the second oldest continuous sporting event in the U.S. after the (INAUDIBLE).
Well, that does it for us here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. I'll be back in just over an hour with more on the pope's trip.
But in the meantime, I'm going to hand you over to Alex Thomas and "WORLD SPORT."
END
